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It's Friday. A summer Friday. So on this day when all of us should be taking it a little slow, we thought we'd rewind to one of our favorite videos of 2013: the entire line of Patek Philippe minute repeaters, chiming. Watch the video above, and read the original detailed post here.

One of the most fascinating things about the Patek Philippe of today is its distribution chain. The vast majority of its sales points in the United States are actually family-owned, single-shop jewelry stores, many of which have held the Patek account for decades, if not generations. Needless to say, this isn't the case because there is a shortage of jewelers dying to carry the brand. It has become something of a running joke within industry insiders that becoming an authorized dealer for Patek Philippe is next to impossible. In fact, Patek USA hasn't opened up a single new door in almost a decade – over nine years. Until now.

You see that watch up there? That is the Patek Philippe Supercomplication, made by Patek Philippe for arguably the greatest horological collector of the 20th century, Henry Graves, Jr. It features 24 unique complications, and is the most complicated watch ever built by the human hand. For over half a century, it was in fact the most complicated watch period, until Patek showed the caliber 89 in celebration of its 150th anniversary – though that was constructed with the assistance of CAD and 3-D modeling.

On November 12, 2012, the watch collecting community watched in wonder as two of the world’s most important Patek Philippe wristwatches went under the hammer at Christie’s Geneva: a reference 2499 perpetual calendar chronograph in platinum offered for sale by Eric Clapton (one of two white metal 2499s ever made, with the other belonging to Patek Philippe) and a reference 2458 that was made especially for Joe Ben Champion, Jr. housing a movement that placed third in the 1948 Geneva Observatory competition. Each would have been the cover lot for any just about any other watch auction, but it just so happened that they were part of the same sale. On paper, many would have assumed that the Clapton 2499 would sell for more than the Champion 2458 – but many would have been wrong. Champion’s 2458 was the champion of the sale, bringing in over $4 million.

One of the most interesting watches made by Patek Philippe during the middle of last century are those that we can call "Amagnetic." These rare references feature additional inner case backs, and in some cases, anti-magnetic escapement components such as solid gold or beryllium to ensure the timekeeping was not affected by any magnetism in close proximity to the watch. Now you might be thinking "hey, that's just like the Rolex Milgauss!" and you're right. It's also a lot like IWC's Ingenieur, and JLC's Geophysic. You see, the Amagnetic Pateks were really the great manufactures first and only foray into what we often call "tool" watches. And today, we'd like to point you towards an incredible resource on these highly sought after timepieces.

What is easy to forget about Patek Philippe is that today, they offer the widest and most impressive range of high-end calibers in the world. The depth of their research and manufacturing capabilities is downright extraordinary. This allows them to produce not only self-winding chronographs like what you'll find in the 5960 and 5980/5990, in addition to the in-house manually wound chrono found in the 5170, but also a few extremely impressive, ultra high-end chronograph calibers that you seldom see in the real world. One such example is mono-pusher split-seconds you see here in the incredible 5950A.

There is a small handful of vintage watch collectors in this world that can truly be called "market-makers." John Goldberger is one of them. Another is the 45-year-old, tan-skinned, silver-haired gentleman you are about to meet. Alfredo Paramico is a true insider, and has long been considered one of the top watch buyers on the planet. Remember that unique platinum Patek Philippe Bulletin Chronometer that sold for $3,992,858 in November of 2012? You know, the watch that actually beat the Eric Clapton owned platinum 2499 in the same sale? Yes, Alfredo bought that. A 1518 in steel? He's owned one of those, too. This is your chance to go inside the collection of a true connoisseur. Click through for Talking Watches with Alfredo Paramico.

A few weeks ago we told you about an insane collection of unique titanium Pateks that will be hitting the block at Sotheby's on June 10th in New York. Well, there's one left that we didn't tell you about. This unique, previously unknown watch looks unassuming enough from the front – two-hands, Breguet numerals, silvered dial – but when you turn it over you'll see a massive 9.44 ct D Flawless diamond staring back at you. Instead of looking at the movement through a sapphire window, you actually look at the manually-wound caliber through the diamond itself. Here is your exclusive first look at this extremely unique watch.

One of the most interesting parts of our job is witnessing horological history change. Of course, we're not talking anything earth shattering here like learning you were right about the Big Bang theory, but in our own, watch-nerdy little way, we've gotten to observe things change. Like, with last year's Palmer Grand Complication, we learned that Patek was making grand comps a full decade before what was originally believed. Or back in 2011, this minute repeater showed us a brand new caliber AND new reference previously unknown. The thing is, we're (not "we" as in HODINKEE, but we as in "us people") discovering great watches all the time, and the folks at Sotheby's New York gave us a call last week to tell us about some of the most incredible modern Patek Philippes they'd ever seen, and a few we simply couldn't believe were real. Let's get into it.

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Friday March 3, 2012

HODINKEE is one of the most widely read wristwatch publications in the world. Launched in 2008 by then 25-year-old Benjamin Clymer, the site quickly gained notoriety for earnest looks at some of the industry’s most interesting, and occasionally forgotten timepieces.